Slept on a three-foot long wooden bench on a rusting cargo ship that went up and down, up and down, up and down….

The Eastpack got into port in St. Kitts at around 1pm, but I stayed on board desperately pounding the internet for all it was worth trying to find a cargo boat, yacht, hovercraft, whatever, that would take me to Antigua. Finally getting off the boat at 5pm (after depositing a hefty bribe in the captain’s pocket) me and the team back in the UK – John Dino and Lorna, had no leads and no clue how I was going to get off this rock.

There were no boats whatsoever in the deep-water harbour and only about three in the marina. Where on Earth is everyone? I thought all the rich bankers were hiding out in the Caribbean while the rest of the world dealt with the global economic collapse that they caused. A bit like when you throw a stink bomb in the school disco and then and go hide in the toilets.

But no, nobody’s here.

Had a problem getting out of port as the shipping agent told me I had to wait for the customs guys to come back. I was out of water and utterly starving, sitting on a concrete step next to the boom gate whilst some particularly ferocious ants feasted on my legs (through my jeans). When the customs guys did come back an hour later, it was a) now dark, and b) utterly pointless as I had already been cleared through customs by the captain five hours earlier. I had to go to the airport for my stamp. The lady at the boom gate told me that I had to get a taxi.

Did she ring me one? Nah – you can get one on the road. So I started to walk the three miles to the airport in the dark. No taxis came, so I walked all the way, with all my bags. Urgh. Immigration told me in very cinematic fashion that I had 5 days to get off the island and stamped me in (and out) of the country.

Luckily, a taxi driver named Elvis (uh-huh) came to my rescue. He sorted me out with somewhere to stay for the night and something to eat. Plus, he was called Elvis. How cool is that? He told me to go and see Mistress Challenger in the morning to see if she could help with getting a boat to the next island, Antigua. When a guy called Elvis tells you to go see Mistress Challenger, you go see Mistress Challenger.

My guesthouse was pretty grotty and disturbingly expensive for what it was (a dirty box room with a mattress and a cold shower). Mission ‘Get Graham off this island’ would begin tomorrow.

Up early and off to see the two contacts I had on the island. The first one, Shauna, was not in work this weekend. The second, the enigmatically named Mistress Challenger was also not in this weekend either. With no cargo ships to talk of and hardly any yachts in port, I despaired of ever getting off this island to anywhere, never mind Antigua.

So I headed down to the marina and tried my luck asking around – it didn’t take long – there were only 5 people there. I got chatting with Seamus (from Ireland) and Derek (from Manchester) – a couple of guys in a glass-bottomed boat who, liking the idea of The Odyssey, offered me a beer and then promptly kidnapped me and took me on a impromptu snorkelling trip. The captain of the boat was a local lad called Wayne who would take me under his wing for the next few days.

Here’s me panicking about getting off the island and here’s the island fighting back – trying to get me to chill the hell out and enjoy myself for five minutes.

We got back from snorkelling in the afternoon. Wayne and Seamus insisted I come to the cricket with them – England were playing a warm-up match against St. Kitts. It was free to get in and I was soon feeling the ill effects of too much alcohol in the sun.

I headed back to my guesthouse and Wayne insisted that I stay at his place – after describing my room as ‘a prison cell’! So I hiked all my kit over to his house and then we headed out in pursuit of more beer and fun.

Got back to Wayne’s house and crashed. Would have loved to have gone to shwarmy shake shake (or whatever it was called) where the England Cricket Team were hanging out, but St. Kitts had me bushed.

Got up bright and early to go and see a man about a boat – Wayne had organised someone to take me over to Antigua in a speedboat for US$500 – only, this being the Caribbean, he didn’t show up. So I spent the morning listlessly roaming around and then gave up entirely and spent the afternoon at Wayne’s house watching reruns of CSI waiting for the phone to ring. It didn’t ring.

I’m WAY WAY WAY behind schedule now, I should be in Central America and I’m not – I’m stuck on an island miles from anywhere that has about 3 boats on it.

But Wayne remained upbeat that I’d get a ride today. We headed down to the marina at 9am and asked one of the guys who worked there if he knew of any boats going to Antigua. Yeah – that one. He pointed to The Vagrant, a yacht sporting a Canadian flag.

We wandered over and spoke to the captain, Grant Gordon. I explained what I was doing and he said jump aboard, we leave in 10 minutes.

I was so grateful, I nearly cried.

I ran back to Wayne’s, grabbed my stuff and jumped on the boat. I was introduced to Jim and Freda who were sailing with Grant and we were off on our way to Antigua.

Now…Antigua is upwind and against the current. It’s not far, but it took all day and all night to get there. I haven’t been seasick since the September Song and I was alright on the Vagrant, so I was quite an enjoyable jaunt with some really lovely people.

But if I’m going to finish this thing within a year, I can’t be wasting three days in each port and then travelling at 4mph to my next destination. I’m really starting to panic.

THE TRAVELOMETER

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The Odyssey Expedition

"We all dream about travelling the world. But some dreams are bigger than others."

My name is Graham Hughes. I'm an adventurer, film-maker, travel blogger and TV presenter from Liverpool, England. On January 1 2009 I crossed the River Plate into Uruguay and began The Odyssey Expedition: The first official Guinness World Record attempt to visit every sovereign state on Planet Earth without flying.

Along the way I self-filmed and presented the TV show Graham's World for the National Geographic Adventure channel and raised funds for the registered charity WaterAid.

I travelled alone, without any back-up and on a shoestring budget of less than $100 a week. I kept costs down by CouchSurfing with locals and hitching rides on cargo ships whenever possible.

It was an adventure of epic proportions. I spent four days crossing open ocean in a leaky wooden boat to reach Cape Verde, I was imprisoned for a week in Congo and was arrested whilst attempting to sneak into Russia.

I ran the blockade into Cuba, blagged my way into Eritrea, ran around Iraq with an AK-47, spent seven days in Tibet and warned schoolchildren in Afghanistan about the dangers of men with beards.

I met the Prime Minister of Tuvalu, rode on top of a 18-wheeler through the northern badlands of Kenya, hitched a ride on a cruise ship to The Dominican Republic, joined a Bwiti tribe in Gabon, screamed at the ocean in El Salvador and watched a space shuttle blast off in the USA.

I set the Guinness World Record for 'The Most Countries Visited in One Year by Scheduled Ground Transport' and, on Monday November 26 2012, became the first person to visit all 201 soveriegn nations of the world without flying.

Having completed the First Surface Journey To Every Country in the world by crossing the border into South Sudan (which didn't even exist when I began the adventure), I raced back home to Liverpool, England. And, in the spirit of the adventure, I did it without flying. I arrived on the Ferry Cross The Mersey on Saturday 22 December 2012.

The rules of The Odyssey Expedition, as set by me and the nice chaps at Guinness World Records

- I cannot fly

- I may not drive

- I must use scheduled ground transport

- I must step foot on dry land

You might think that would have been the end of it all, but a rep from Guinness World Records got back to me saying that they were not going to validify my record attempt as I had crossed into Russia illegally.
So I returned to Russia, this time with a visa! Still, it wasn't until a year later that Guinness had gone through the 1,000,000 GPS points, 10,000 photos, 400 hours of video and 192 passport pages... and finally, catagorically and officially approved the record. I am, and always will be, the first person to visit every country in the world without flying.

The Odyssey Expedition, this four year journey of the soul, is now complete. You can read the adventure from the start by clicking here and you can watch my videos on YouTube. Look out for my TV show, 'GRAHAM'S WORLD' on the National Geographic Adventure channel - it covers the first twelve months of the journey. If you are in the UK, you can watch it for free on YouTube by clicking here

I'm currently living in Panama and working on the upcoming book of my adventures, tentatively titled '201: An Earth Odyssey'. I'll also be churning out more Odyssey Expedition videos, so keep looking out for new ones!!

Now that it's all over, I'd like to thank everybody who helped me along the way. Please note that the Just Giving page for WaterAid is still active (see below) and if you enjoy these blogs, please make a small donation. If you'd like to have a crack at breaking my world records, feel free to contact me and I'll give you all the support I can.

Wanna know why I'm doing in Panama? Well, I won an island. YES I WON AN ISLAND!!! To find out more about my latest madcap adventure head over to my brand new blog, Jinja Island.

WaterAid

One of the goals of The Odyssey Expedition was to help raise funds and awareness for the charity WaterAid, a UK-based registered charity fighting to alleviate the disease, misery and death caused by open sewers, contaminated drinking water and bad sanitation in developing countries around the world. If you enjoy these blogs, then please give give give.

It's shocking that even today, children are still dying from diarrhoea - one of the most preventable and cheaply treated diseases in the world. A donation of just one dollar would pay for a simple sugar-salt solution which could genuinely save a child's life.

The Odyssey Expedition's JustGiving account ensures that 100 percent of the money you donate goes directly to WaterAid.